Longest overnight train
 

What is the longest overnight train journey in the world?

This November, a sleeper train is supposed to start travelling between Beijing and Fuzhou.

The fastest existing train on the route is Z59/Z58. It covers 2067 km, and takes 19:43 from the journey, departing 15:08. Not quite an overnight train - it may be easier (but more expensive) to fly in the evening. The cheapest train fare (hard seat) is RMB 231, meaning about US$ 34. Lower soft sleeper is available for RMB 642, meaning about US$ 93. For comparison, typical restricted coach tickets are RMB 1672, and unrestricted coach is RMB 4942, for 2:25 to 2:35 scheduled flight time.

Well, the sleeper train shall take a longer route, covering 2369 km and stopping in places like Shanghai, Ningbo and Wenzhou.

Yet complete the trip in 16:00. The schedule is rumoured to be, depart Beijing 19:20, arrive in Fuzhou 11:20 2nd day.

How well does it compare with flight options?

There are no morning flights reaching Fuzhou much earlier - Hainan 7195 and Air China Flight 1505 arrive in Fuzhou 11:05. How long does it take to get to Fuzhou centre from airport? Those flights depart 8:30 and 8:35. How long does it take to get from Beijing to Beijing airport and then on a domestic flight?

In the evening, Air China 1821 departs 20:05 and Xiamen 8110 departs 21:10. But Xiamen 8110 arrives 23:45, so it gets rather late by the time one can get to Fuzhou, eat supper and go to sleep.

Does anyone have a clue as to what the ticket prices of train shall be like? (Supper and breakfast would probably not be included, but can be enjoyed at leisure).

Are there any other train journeys in the world which also 1) cover 2000+ km and 2) are scheduled so that any alternative flight would mean inconvenient bedtimes?

Moscow to Vladivistok is the longest I can think of - it takes a week. Many rail journeys take several days. My longest was Moscow to Novosibirsk which took two days and two nights.

For international rail advice, try www.seat61.com

How does that compare to Moscow to Beijing?

I assume the Q means a single overnight - as in, what's the longest distance covered by a train that leaves in the evening, and arrives the next morning. Is this correct?

My great circle, MOW-VVO is 3993 mi and MOW-BJS is 3611 mi. Obviously it's further in kilometres ;)

Then it's a strange question. Overnight trains often go more slowly than daytime trains with the intention of giving pax a smoother ride.

Single overnight trip is the longest that a train can save time compared to a plane. Like my argument was, if a train travels 16 hours, 19:00 to 11:00 then evening flight means arriving late and morning flight means getting up early. Whereas the existing fastest train, 20 hours from 15:00 to 11:00 can comfortably be beaten by evening flight without staying up late.

Is CRH1E uncomfortable to sleep in?

I doubt that trains follow the great circle ;)

But I understand the question :)

What? I doubt anyone knows every flight and train option in the world.

Where and when did railroads begin doing this as it obviously costs them extra money to do this. Certainly not in the US, Canada or Mexico or anywhere I have been.

MisterNice

It's pretty common in Europe. In the UK, for example, you can get from London to Glasgow or Edinburgh in a little over 4 hours by day train. The night train, however, takes 7h30. Not only do you get a smoother ride and allow slack for engineering works, the train leaves and arrives at far more sociable hours, making it a much more attractive prospect.

Most of the shorter routes on the CityNightLine network are like this too.

It does cost more in terms of staffing, but not necessarily in terms of track access costs and energy. You rarely get night trains using the high speed lines.

Based on my (only) recent experience, my overnight train went much smoother the fast we went. Pulling out of stations was the worst part.

Perhaps that's because the smoother the track, the faster the train can go. Pulling out of stations, track have lots of points and crossovers. That makes for a bumpy ride and it has to be done very slowly. But generally, on any given piece of track, the slower the train goes the smoother the ride will be. That's why trains used to slow down for rickety bridges rather than speed up for them.

I would guess this was less due to the driver consciously going slower than allowed and more due to more limited maximum speeds of the equipment (standard rail carriages versus high-speed ones), using different routes with slower speeds allowed, etc. I don't have any evidence to back this up, but I highly doubt that any company--even a government agency that's not in it for profit--would choose to pay higher staffing costs for slower trains (unless market research proved it increases revenue because of the better hours and/or more comfortable ride).

It's probably not the case in Europe, where high-speed passenger rail has made virtually all track of the continuously-welded kind, but going slower doesn't always result in smoother rides. In the U.S., the harmonic rocking motion of railroad equipment going over the standard 39-foot sticks of jointed rail (the kind where the rails are bolted together instead of welded, which creates the nostalgic "clickety-clack" sound of railways of old) reaches its peak (on such jointed rail, which is mostly absent on the major routes now) between 35 and 40mph. Going faster than that actually causes the ride to be smoother.

I don't recall what the historic standard length of jointed rail in Europe is (which would affect the speed at which the ride is roughest) and/or how much non-welded track is left, but it's something to consider.

Which is the key point, really. Nobody is going to take a sleeper leaving at 1am and arriving at 5.30am unless they have no other choice - and these days, they usually do. UK sleepers (on privatised railways) use coaches that have a maximum speed of 125mph, too, so they're definitely running slowly.

Yes. Shorter routes.

Because a night train little over 4 hours is, indeed, stopping at unsociable hours.

But what about routes that are so long that the fastest day train is 10 hours already, like Beijing-Shanghai, D31 takes 9:52 for 1463 km?

What would then be the point of a night train being slower and taking 18 hours?

Do night trains travel slower to provide smoother ride? Or, when they do, solely and exclusively to stretch the trip out for sufficient bedtime?